TPCF 48

CHAPTER 48……………

If it were just simple jealousy, Anita wouldn’t have had any reason to be annoyed, but Rutger had no such interest in her.

Anita was too tired to keep repeating the same petty conflicts with him without even knowing why.

“It’s mine.”

“Oh. Though anyone can see it’s a man’s size, right?”

Rutger irritatingly shook the clothes in front of her. Anita bit down hard on the soft flesh inside her mouth. If she could, she would have snatched it from his hand. But she had been standing rooted in one spot, like a tree, from the start.

If she moved, he would notice her ankle wasn’t fine.

“I always wear men’s sizes.”

Instead of answering, he just jerked his chin toward the shirt she was wearing.

“Fine. Then it’s not mine. So just give it to me?”

“If you tell me who it belongs to.”

“……”

Anita rolled her eyes.

“Alright. I’ll give it to you. Just let me touch it one last time.”

It didn’t look like this would end anytime soon, so Anita decided to change her plan.

“Ah. If I hand it over, you’ll just check the label and buy the same one, won’t you?”

Anita blinked rapidly for a moment.

“If you thought I knew nothing about you, that was your mistake. Anita Rodel.”

When he suddenly leaned his face close, Anita was so startled she instinctively stepped back.

“Ah.”

A sharp pain shot up her ankle from the pressure. She felt it was unbearably unfair. Not just because of the injured ankle, but because even on a day like this, she was trapped dealing with Rutger, unable to do anything.

Quickly, Anita forced her expression back to normal. If he realized her ankle wasn’t fine, it would be trouble. Her gaze, which had dropped unconsciously, returned forward again.

Then she noticed a hand extended toward her. His hand was reaching out, as if to catch her.

“Why…?”

Anita thought she’d managed her expression well enough. Most people wouldn’t react so strongly just because someone stepped back a little. But Rutger’s face looked urgent, as if he were watching someone about to fall off a cliff.

When Anita just looked between his hand and face without saying anything, he awkwardly cleared his throat and withdrew his hand.

Their eyes met. For a moment, his gaze looked uncharacteristically serious, but then it bent into the smile he always made before pulling some prank.

Anita narrowed her eyes uneasily. What was he plotting this time?

“Let’s swap bags and coats. What do you think?”

“What are you talking about?”

“Come on. Give it.”

Anita clutched her bag defensively and glared at him. It was obvious he wanted to play some childish trick.

But she always ended up falling for his games, even knowing better. Not because she was foolish, but because Rutger was relentless and left her no other choice.

As expected, she had no choice this time either. If she didn’t give him the bag, he would linger around her all day.

“……”

She handed over the heavy bag weighing down her shoulder.

“No wonder you don’t grow taller, carrying stuff like this around.”

“……”

Anita ignored the remark and simply held out her hand. But Rutger looked puzzled at her gesture.

“Why?”

She jerked her chin at the coat in his hand.

“Oh. You said you didn’t know whose this was, right? Then I’ll find the owner for you. Instead of you.”

At that moment, Anita realized that sometimes people are so unbelievable you can’t even speak.

“I’ll just borrow this for now, alright?”

To make it worse, he slung her bag over his shoulder and spoke as if nothing were wrong.

“Hey.”

“I’m just curious what biology students study.”

“Are you crazy?”

Finally, harsh words slipped out of Anita’s mouth. Rutger widened his eyes and pulled a book from her bag.

“You really study this kind of thing seriously? It’d take at least a hundred years to finish reading.”

He teased her to the end. Anita’s expression twisted with anger for a moment, but quickly returned to blank. She didn’t want to show him she was upset.

It wasn’t the first or second time she’d fallen victim to his endless pranks, yet Anita still believed that if she just didn’t react, he would eventually stop.

“Well then, see you later.”

He walked away, leaving her behind. She couldn’t chase him. Beating his speed was hard enough even normally, but now she had a bandaged ankle.

Anita looked down helplessly at her suddenly empty arm.

She ended up twenty minutes late for class. Who would have thought life could become this inconvenient with just one injured leg? A walk that normally took five minutes had stretched to twenty.

Sighing, Anita opened the lecture room door. She could always borrow the book from someone else.

As she searched for a seat, something familiar caught her eye. On the back-row table sat a bag identical to hers.

Why is that here?

While she stood there dumbly blinking, a student seated at the back poked her arm, as if to say “what are you waiting for, sit down.”

Awkwardly smiling, Anita sat down where the bag was.

The very bag that had just left her hands sat right in front of her. Anita opened it with suspicion.

Inside were, without a doubt, her own belongings.